The wrestler Nikola Stanchev was the first Bulgarian competitor to become an Olympic champion. At the “Melbourne‘56” Olympic Games he won the free-style wrestling title. Dimitar Dobrev won the first medal in the classic-style wrestling– he took the silver. At the next Games in “Rome ‘60” Dobrev reached the Olympic peak as well.
The first golden strike was made by the Bulgarian wrestlers in “Tokyo‘64”. Boyan Radev (classic style), Enyu Velchev and Prodan Gardzhev (free style) won the titles. Radev doubled his trophy in “Mexico ‘68”. Patar Kirov is also a two-time Olympic champion (“Mexico ‘68” and “Munich ‘72”, classic style).
The Bulgarians won the greatest number of medals in “Moscow ‘80” – 10. The legendary Alexander Tomov won the silver yet again. During his whole career Tomov strived at the Olympic peak and became second for three times in a row (“Munich ‘72”, “Montreal ‘76”, “Moscow ‘80”).